Everything is working out exactly how it is supposed to for Ford Proctor.

Middle school baseball players come to Kelly just to watch the sophomore shortstop's flawless mechanics.

Expectations are raised when he comes to bat.

Over the summer, Proctor walked into a Rice University assistant coach's office and was offered a scholarship to play baseball.

His visit into that office started the wheels of a baseball talent mill in which Major League Baseball, college programs and young talent vie for leverage with big money on the line.

"In a sense, when you get that commitment, it's a weight off your shoulders," Kelly head baseball coach Jimmy Neale said. "But to me, it's almost scarier because that security blanket can be pulled."

A Numbers Game

Proctor's scholarship is a slice of a pie meant to feed more than it can.

Unlike college basketball and football players, those on college baseball teams rarely receive full scholarships that pay for their entire education.

Proctor said he is receiving a 60 percent scholarship to Rice, which would leave $21,716.40 unpaid under costs for the 2013-14 academic year.

Hayden Guidry, a Bridge City senior pitcher, is committed to play at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He said the he is also receiving a 60 percent athletic scholarship, but ULL is also including a 38 percent academic scholarship to bring the total to 98 percent.

Every college baseball program (excluding junior college) is limited to 11.7 scholarships ranging from

25 to 100 percent.

"Is it unfair? Well there's a reason behind it," said Neale, who played baseball at Lamar. "It's because baseball is not a revenue-producing sport."

Bridge City head baseball coach Chad Landry said schools interested in high school players will send out questionnaires asking how much that household makes.

"Can (a player) afford to take less money and go to a different place or are they having to go to the school offering the most money so they can afford it?" Landry said.

Here is where universities within states that offer the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) have an advantage.

TOPS rewards students who stay in-state with financial aid and in nearby Louisiana, that means low costs for those eligible.

Louisiana students who meet the academic requirements for TOPS received between $2591 and $2991 per semester at Louisiana State University (LSU) during the 2012-13 academic year. In that year, tuition and fees for an in-state student taking 15 credit hours at LSU was $3,498 per semester.

Lamar associate head coach Jim Ricklefsen, who is in his 15th season with Lamar and heads recruiting, said TOPS allows programs like LSU to sign Louisiana high school talent without it counting against their scholarship total because the in-state player is already receiving money from TOPS.

In this way, LSU is able to get in-state players for very little and then recruit out-of-state talent with the program's saved scholarship money.

"I really have a hard time with the NCAA justifying fairness in the recruiting process," Ricklefesen said. "The state of Texas is too big to (provide free tuition)."

It is for this reason that Legacy Christian head baseball coach Chris Fackler said parents would be wise to have their young baseball player's academic priorities in order.

"There's a ton of good high school players and what separates you is academics," Fackler said. "If a school doesn't have to give up that athletic money, you're ahead of the game."

Who's the Boss?

Limited money is not the only stipulation to Proctor's verbal commitment to Rice.

"If Rice had recruited me, it would have been a dream of mine, too," Neale said. "But I warned him Rice can back out, they can retract the commitment."

A high school baseball player cannot sign his National Letter of Intent to attend and play for a school until his senior year. Until then, a non-binding verbal commitment is given, which either party can back out of.

High school athletes are investments for college athletics. When programs offer scholarships to players early in their high school careers those college coaches expect their investments to improve and stay healthy.

"If you sign a kid and in his senior year, he has an injury and you know he's not going to be ready, what do you do?" Ricklefsen said. "If he's not healthy, do you still honor that money?"

And once that player is in his freshman year of college, the pressure does not ease. Scholarships are awarded on an annual basis, meaning that each season becomes an audition to get tuition money for the following year.

Landry, who played at Texas Tech before coaching at Bridge City, said a mixture of grades, behavior and performance factor into whether a scholarship will be renewed, and be renewed at the same amount.

"My roommate (at Tech) Shaun Larkin, who was an All-American, got his scholarship taken away going into his senior year and he transferred. He had no leverage, the school has all the leverage," Landry said.

Because verbal commitments are non-binding, Ricklefsen added that larger college baseball program will essentially play with money/scholarships they don't have by stockpiling high school players.

"Some of the big-name schools get a lot of verbal commitments and they have the weight to renege on that verbal commitment if they want to," Ricklefsen said. "Ethically it's not right, but there's a lot of them that do it. They'll get verbal commitments from a pile of guys and sift through the ones they really want."

But there is a reason those bigger schools need to over-sign - the allure of the Draft.

Pro Dreams

Fackler, who is an associate scout for the Colorado Rockies in addition to being Legacy's baseball coach, has a favorite story relating to entering the MLB Draft from high school.

In August 2009, first-year pitcher Brody Colvin was at LSU Freshman Orientation registering for his student ID. But then the Philadelphia Phillies came calling with an offer including a $900,000 bonus, according to an article in the Times-Picayune.

Colvin was that close to becoming a student at LSU, but instead, got in his car and headed home. His next stop was the minor leagues.

Just as colleges can pull the rug from under athletes, the athletes can do the same to the colleges by leaving for the major leagues.

Programs that attract top prospects capable of entering the Draft straight from high school will over-sign in the anticipation that some will go pro.

In the tug-of-war between college and MLB for the best high school players - schools are feeling stretched.

"We used to have (the draw of a degree)," Ricklefsen said. "We don't have leverage anymore. There's more money thrown around in major league baseball than ever before."

Pro teams can offer high school players educational packages similar to a GI Bill. If players agree to sign with a MLB team, that team will pay for their education in the offseason at a school of their choosing.

"If a kid understands how the business works, a large portion of them get that academic package," Fackler said.

All Ford Proctor has wanted to do is play baseball. Some say that if he continues to improve, the sophomore shortstop might have a chance to get drafted by a MLB team out of high school. But will he be ready for baseball to turn from a game to a career?

"Can this 18-year-old leave home and go play minor league baseball with 24-year-old men with wives and children in a ballpark in the middle of nowhere?" Flackler said. "It's a job now."